Pateris

Actually, without the United States western Europe would be speaking Russian. The Soviet Union was doing an admirable job defeating the Nazi war machine long before D-Day. While the minor assistance they received from the west was helpful - it was not decisive.

Perhaps your problem is in the selection of career choice, or your impression of what kind of job you should be getting at entry level. You complain that we have too many students looking for work and employers not willing to hire. You obviously are in the eastern half of the country. We have massive shortages of skilled labour in western canada. Welders, pipefitters, ironworkers, electricians - even house framers. with regard to university grads we are shorts doctors, nurses, engineers and other skilled trades. We don't need more lawyers or MBAs - honestly. Some accountants would be good though. And you studied Sales and Marketing - most businesses I know what someone who knows something about the business itself to be doing the sales and marketing - promotion from within it is called. So perhaps you are looking for the wrong position. Perhaps you should be looking for something NOT in sales and marketing. Something lower down the food chain in a business that actually produces something (be it a good or service) and then move up into sales and marketing. Also - I know companies here hiring 19 year olds with little education into marketing groups because they can't find anyone else. And one of the best sales people I know has a degree in a social science. And that is selling in a highly technical field.

Latest poll data shows that 63% of Canadians think Martin is dishonest, compared to 29% for Harper. Dishonesty is a VERY hard impression to reverse. Hopefully the slide is beginning.

Given the weight of evidence submitted at the Gomery Commission (and it IS evidence), anyone who believes that this was simply a "few rogues" is kidding themselves. Especially these revelations about nine CANDIDATES being handed $60,000 in cash at an event in SHAWINIGAN in 1997. It is become very clear that this was a SYSTEMIC corruption within the Liberal Party of Canada (Quebec) and I cannot imagine that the top level people in the party, from Chretien on down, had no idea it was going on.

Cadman had chemotherapy and did not vote, and two Liberal Cabinet ministers (Cotler and Efford) were not in the house. I agree this wasn't the big vote - but I don't think we will get to 24 May. The budget vote will happen before then. if the government does survive the spring session, we will then be committed to a winter election (as per PMs promise - and that election WILL be all about corruption).

perhaps you'd like to explain who the "rich" are? Statscan has shown that 10% of the population pays 52% of the taxes, and that to be in that top 10% you only need to make $64,500 per year. And why is it someone who makes $18,000 per year pays almost $2000 a year in income tax? The Conservative party would fix this.

Currently, Alberta and BC have excess power generation capacity, and Alberta is building MORE. Almost all of the new power generation is coal fired, because that is the CHEAPEST source of new electrical power generation available. So we can sell nice coal-fired electrical power to the Americans as soon as we finish building the power lines to Nevada. Why do we need this national power grid again?

Melanie et al, I guess my big problem with creating ANOTHER large government program is that I have lost all trust in any level of government to efficiently deliver services with my tax dollars. Therefore I want to pay less taxes and fend for myself. The health care system is a disaster BECAUSE of the government, as are pretty much EVERY OTHER government run program. So I don't want to give them another place to waste my money.

Melanie, Less taxes to the government would be a good thing in my view - then they would stop wasting it. My problem with your scheme is that ONLY parents who send their children to the government funded daycare get benefit from the taxpayer, while those who don't are paying for something they get NO benefit from. It isn't fair and it creates a disincentive for people to raise their own children.

Melanie, On the child care issue - my big problem is that whenever government runs a big program like this is gets to be ridiculously expensive for the taxpayer. I also don't like the idea of "universal childcare" because that means that parents won't have the choice to take care of their children at home. Tax breaks will give people the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE whether they take care of their own children or pay someone else to do it. Some government assistance and government quality control of these centers is important - but they shouldn't be government run. Also - if the government is going to run these centers, how much money do you think they should budget for the lawsuits when some "government employee" abuses a child? Think of the residential schools and the natives. If you think that WON'T happen again you are fooling yourself.

Melanie, Why don't you have any faith in Harper?

The primary reasons Saskatchewan is a "have" province have NOTHING to do with anything positive the NDP has done. Government revenue is up because of OIL (just like Alberta), URANIUM and POTASH prices. Saskatchewan's unemployment rate is 5% ONLY BECAUSE the unemployed MOVED to Alberta and found jobs there. So don't give credit where credit not due.

mcqueen, Would you have had McKenna as premier continue the silly policy of borrowing ridiculous amounts of money to pay for services you couldn't afford until the province was bankrupt?

Methinks you have been conned. No one who joined the Liberal party and fought that hard to take it over is a good and decent person. The Liberal party's only real principle is gaining and holding onto POWER. Actual behaviour shall be government by the polls.

The reason is that Albertans like Ralph a little too much and that there is NO credible alternative. The Liberals and NDP sound the same and most Albertans aren't socialists. The Alberta Alliance still is wingnutty and unknown. Most Albertans are Canadians and don't like the ideas of the Separation Party of Alberta. So you see that is the problem. If the Alliance straightened out a bit and found a better leader, they could knock off the Conservatives and Ralph Klein.

Why do so many Canadians remember Trudeau fondly? During his tenure as PM the national debt grew by 10 TIMES, from $11 Billion to $128 BILLION. The federal deficit in 1968 was ZERO, while in 1984 it was $25 Billion. PET was responsible for NONE of the key social programs Canadians claim are sacred, such as EI, CPP, OAS, or the health care system. The exception is he was responsible for the Canada Health Act which hamstrung the system by ensuring we have waiting lists and people seeking treatment in the US because it takes too long here. PET expanded the regional development agencies which have done little if anything to improve the economic state of the regions and have created disincentives for people to move where the real economic growth occurs. PET expanded EI (then UI) to make it easier for people to collect for longer periods, costing the taxpayers more money and creating a disincentive for people to work or move to where there is work. PET destroyed the Canadian military, which in prior decades had been a significant and respected force. PET wasted BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars buying PetroCanada from Fina of Belgium and this didn't provide Canada with a better oil industry or better prices for Canadians. PET restricted economic growth through Maoist/Marxist policies limiting trade, investment and profit-making which raised unemployment. PET often lied to the electorate for political reasons. In 1974 he railed against Stanfield's "price controls" then implemented them after he won anyway. In 1980 he railed against Clark's gas tax increase, then increased them even further after he won. PET ruled through a period that was almost entirely an economic depression. PET failed to fix the native problem as his government promised in a 1970 white paper by Chretien's department. PET was openly antagonistic to a best friend, neighbour and biggest trading partner. His only real accomplishment was the repatration of the Constistution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms - which Quebec has never accepted, and the courts have extended beyond it's text. Further, the Charter does not protect the individual's right to own property or to defend it from seizure. Because he didn't think people should OWN property (Marxist thinking). So why do so many Canadians remember him fondly?

Our trading relationship with the US is doing quite fine. Softwood lumber and Beef are minor irritants. For instance, softwood lumber has forced BC lumber producers to become more efficient so they can compete even with the US tariffs. And can ship product overseas more effectively. The beef issue should push the beef industry to slaughter more cows in Canada and ship packaged beef instead of cows. The Americans are still accepting beef, just not live animals. And we are now the largest single supplier of OIL to the USA and they are spending BILLIONS of dollars in Canada to get more of it. And we still export a lot more CARS to the USA than we import from them. And we still export more electricity to the USA than we import. Interesting isn't it. We still have a trade SURPLUS with the Americans yet you claim they don't want our stuff.

Comparing Canadian and US tax rates is misleading, because deductions are different, writedowns for capital investment differ, tax on foreign income, etc. And we have lower corporate taxes because we are trying to ATTRACT more businesses. Like Ireland did when it lowered it's taxes below the EU average. Business creates jobs. Government doesn't. Business creates wealth. Governments just move it around.

err, First of all, hydroelectricity is only cheap if you ignore the initial construction cost. The buyers should have paid more for those facilities. But the government didn't have enough bidders so the price was low. Also - the bidders were nervous because they government hadn't clearly stated the rules. Second, other forms of electricity are expensive, like nuclear and natural gas fired power. This brings up the average price of production. Third, the government of Ontario capped the price consumers pay - the province is paying the difference out of tax dollars. Therefore you are really paying the whole price - it's just hidden from you. Fourth, the debt repayment is repaying the Ontario Hydro debt from when it was government owned and VERY POORLY managed. At one time Ontario Hydro had more debt than the provincial government. Fifth, in Alberta, after some pain in electricity deregulation (again caused by unclear rules), the provincial capacity to generate power is now larger than demand. Because the transmission lines to export this power are not large enough, the spot price for electricity in Alberta is down to about $0.02 per kWh. Almost all new power generation in Alberta is coal fired because coal is cheap. Others will be fired on synthetic gas formed from the tar sands. Ontario is crazy to shutdown the coal fired plants because their only real alternative is more nuclear power. Which means higher power prices for Ontarians.

Cagerattler, We have lots of evidence that the gun registry computer system and database could have been provided by IBM or Oracle for less than $2 MILLION dollars. So why did it cost $400 MILLION? Because the civil service and the Liberal government decided to buy the parts twice, train civil servants to be programmers, write their own database software from the ground up (TWICE) and still failed to recognize that the database should keep track of the various manufacturers.. All this for a system that doesn't actually do anything to reduce gun crime. As far as I'm concerned - ALL WASTED

As Churchill said: Democracy is the worst form of government ever devised, except for all the others. Paraphrasing: Capitalism is the worst economic model ever devised, except for all the others.

So, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have cut a deal with the feds to essentially take resource revenue out of the equalization calculation. And now Saskatchewan and the NWT want the same treatment so they can get equalization dollars AND keep resource revenue. I think that if the "have-not" provinces deserve this, we should treat the "haves" the same way. Let's take resource revenue out of the "revenue capacity" determination of Alberta and Ontario too. This would reduce the amount of money available for equalization meaning the feds could spend it more evenly across the country. Meaning that Alberta could pay less into equalization... Sounds fair to me.

August, I thought I was clear. The "christian conservatives" in the Republican Party want to limit freedom in America along religious and moral lines. They want to revoke Roe v Wade, have prayer in the schools again, and all that... That's what I meant.

August1991, You have correctly identified one of the contradictions in the Republican definition of freedom. "We want freedom everywhere, but at home we want to limit that freedom along religious lines." Similarly, in Canada we claim to have "freedom", yet the government prohibits me from spending my own money on getting my knee fixed. Some freedom.

Black Dog, They are not apples and oranges... They are both issues for which the activist courts will read the Charter not literally but figuratively. I expect that within 2 years polygamy will be legalized too. And maybe they'll lower the age of sexual consent too. It is the ridiculously high 14 right now.